Your marriage is like your muscles. Not long ago, I hurt my back and was unable to work out or run. With some medical care and plenty of rest, I was finally able to exercise again.
But after a month off, it hurt to run one mile, where before I could run six miles without a problem. The number of push-ups I could do, the weight I could lift…all metrics of my physical fitness had diminished. Your physical body is not unlike your marriage, you are always getting stronger or getting weaker. Here’s how to invest in your marriage.
How to invest in your marriageÂ
We have to nurture our marriage and invest in it, or like a muscle, it will atrophy and weaken. We don’t have the freedom to put marriage on hold. If we do, our hearts become vulnerable to the enemy.
If you haven’t invested in your marriage in a while and it seems awkward or hard, don’t stop. Over the years, I’ve found that with working out, if I keep running and lifting and doing the things I should, within a few weeks or months, I’ll be back to where I was—or even better off.
Marriage is eminently worthy of your investment. Continue protecting it, pursuing it, and making it your priority. Continue growing your marriage, and, like your workouts, you’ll thrive more than you ever thought possible, if you continue working at it.
Grace Marriage Mission
This week, take inventory of your marriage with your spouse. Look at the past thirty days, the past ninety days, and the past year, and ask yourselves if your marriage has grown stronger or gotten weaker in those time periods.
Talk about why—if you are further apart than you were a year ago, what has or hasn’t happened, and what can you do differently? If you’re stronger now than you were then, talk about why that is, and make a plan to continue the good work.
Focus on these Scripture:
Proverbs 10:15 > The wealth of the rich is his fortified city; the poverty of the poor is their destruction.
Mark 3:27 > But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his possessions, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.
2 Timothy 2:22 > Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Brad Rhoads is co-founder of Grace Marriage.